(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for widening a conference participant's viewing angle in a video conferencing system.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Numerous person-to-person/business-to-business video conferencing systems using Internet technology are used. A video conferencing system is a system that enables people at two or more physically separated locations to meet in real time over the Internet.
Typically, the video conferencing system includes a camera for capturing participants in a conference, a microphone for collecting audio produced from the participants, a processing system for compressing, packetizing, transmitting the video and audio signal and receiving, unpacketizing, uncompressing the video and audio signal from remote site, and a display and speaker to play out the video and audio signal of remote participants.
In recent video conferencing systems, the camera could be controlled by a main speaker among the conference participants. Therefore, the participant sitting at the remote site only views the participant who is speaking, regardless of whether they want to or not.